By Arundati Dandapani
I had the great honour of taking the oath of Canadian #citizenship this morning close on the heels of #Canada Day and the #US Independence Day week on July 07, 2023. Few milestones are probably big as this and if I try and look back it’s hard to exactly find an equivalent moment, but I can recall some significant ones:
- My first book release ceremony in high school.
- My acceptance to university on scholarship in the free world
- My face-to-face meeting with former presidents of the world’s two largest democracies in quick succession, stemming from an opportunity at my all-time favourite public service broadcast network where I learned from the best
- My first global award in publishing
- My first global award in insights and data
- Launching my own platform for immigrant stories but ending up advocating for a whole lot more: education, professional credentials, battling stereotypes, stigma or misinformation with knowledge communities and useful resources, awards, etching my own place as a rightful entity in the Canadian and North American Social Economy partnering across sectors and organizations to improve outcomes for diverse global professionals in the continent.
- Leading across industry associations with my unique expertise, experience, passion and entrepreneurship and being foundational to their success
- Educating the world at every possible opportunity, and settling into the most beautiful oyster that’s a professional college campus in the heart of industry
- And today, becoming an official citizen of something else. Making that leap from someone who has always been excited about building a stronger Brand Canada and North America in a changing world, in every way in the past decades, to someone who also now wears all this as another facet of official identity and belonging.
The common thread through all these milestones (and there are probably way many others that are hard to capture within this mini-reflection), has always been meeting incredible people along the way and creating amazing memories together for a far more informed, far more passionate society that upholds a higher sense of #intellectual integrity as a collective of deeply disparate experiences, backgrounds and ambitions. When anyone tells you you are not enough, they are either simply lying or just very afraid of exploring their own self-potential. A lot can be achieved by the power of human connection, collaboration, and a deep love of everything you create, everything you encounter, and everyone you can impact! It is never “late” to be a strong model for your journey or experiences, and my own platform consistently teaches me that as we operate from the vantage point of a possibility that is “Can-ada,” drawing from our truly global immigrant experiences, wisdom vaults and histories to create a more powerful and fulfilling future as a people who don’t just share similar geographies or coordinates.
After Judge Simmons (pictured above) and the IRCC Clerk congratulated the 80 or so candidates who got sworn in at this morning’s ceremony of new citizens, they encouraged us to do something Canadian today like “go eat poutine or drink some Tim Horton’s coffee.” However, they must have seen me sipping from a Starbucks coffee cup through the entire ceremony, as everyone simply smiled through the hard-hitting reality of our morning assembly. Happy to now count this as a global meeting of minds, hearts, and souls, and a milestone in what continues to shape my story as a North American and global citizen. Thank you to all those who have been part of my journey so far, and I hope I have enriched yours in some way. Perhaps you would like to read more about all this in my upcoming book which is partly a 21st century handbook for immigrant integration but also, what I shall call, a deeply questioning tome on the future of societies, cultures, identity and industrial evolution! Follow more news and stories at Generation1.ca. As the gorgeous July weather beckons outside, I couldn’t be more excited or thrilled to have hit the middle of the year this way!
